Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c23.s1: 1. The Dharmakāya, Body of the Law

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c23.s1

Language
English

1. The Dharmakāya, Body of the Law

c23.s1.1

THE doctrine of the three bodies of a Buddha¹ is specifically a possession of the Mahāyāna, but it is not without precursors in the earlier history of Buddhism, and it is the special distinction of the Mahāyāna to have converted a doctrine merely theological into an ontological and cosmogonical speculation. In various aspects the theory is found both in the Madhyamaka, the Vijñānavāda, and the Mahāyānaśraddhotpāda; it is modified slightly to meet the metaphysical aspects of each theory, but these changes are slight, nor is it always possible to say precisely what view in detail was held by the schools.

c23.s1.2

¹ Poussin, *JRAS.* 1906, pp. 943 ff.; Kern, *Muséon*, vii. (1906), 46 ff.; Wassilieff, *Bouddhisme*, p. 127; Rockhill, *Buddha*, pp. 200 ff. See also Poussin, *Muséon*, 1913, pp. 257 ff.

c23.s1.3

We find already in the Hinayāna the conception of the distinction between the mere physical body of the Buddha which passes away, and the body of the law, which is the doctrine taught by him, to be realized by each man for himself. Later we find the idea that the material body of the Buddha is his body, while the law is the soul.² The law, however, which is the true nature of the Buddha, is true knowledge or the insight or intuition (prajñā) which is attained by a Buddha. The body of the law, therefore, can be equated with enlightenment (bodhi),³ or with release (nirvāṇa). But for the Madhyamaka release, enlightenment, and the body of the law are ultimately no more or less than the highest and only true reality, the void, which lies underneath every phenomenal thing. For the Vijñānavāda in the same way the body of the law as highest reality is the void intelligence, whose infection (saṃkleça) results in the process of birth and death, while its purification brings about Nirvāṇa or its restoration to its primitive transparence.

c23.s1.4

² *Divyāvadāna*, pp. 19 f. See DN. iii. 84; Geiger, PD., p. 78.

c23.s1.5

³ PP., pp. 94, 462; BCAP. ix. 38.

c23.s1.6

At the same time the body of the law must be considered, not merely abstractly, but also in its relation to the world of phenomena. The schools are agreed that the only truth is Nirvāṇa or Buddhahood or cessation or purification of thought; that such purification is impossible, if infection or defilement is real; and that every individual being is only illusion; hence it follows that the body of the law is the true reality of everything. Or, as it is defined in a verse¹ possibly by Nāgārjuna, it is neither one nor multiple, it supports the great blessing of salvation for oneself and for others, it neither exists nor does not exist, it is homogeneous like the ether, its nature is unmanifested, it is undefiled, unchanging, blessed, unique in its kind, diffused, transcendant, and to be known by every one in himself. It is neither one, since it pervades everything, nor multiple, since it remains identical with itself. This appertains to every Buddha, but at the same time each Buddha is asserted to have a Dharmakāya of his own, and receives a special denomination in this aspect; Amitābha, for instance, is named thus as Dharmakāya, but Amitāyus as Sambhogakāya, body of enjoyment. In the case of Mañjuçrī,² who is essentially an embodiment of wisdom, the term body of knowledge (jñānakāya) appears in lieu of body of the law.

c23.s1.7

¹ JRAS. 1906, p. 955, n. 2, from the Chinese of Fa-T'ien (A.D. 982) and comm. on Nāmasaṃgīti.

c23.s1.8

² On the supposed Chinese origin of this person, see Eliot, HB. ii. 19.

c23.s1.9

The Dharmakāya has an equivalent in suchness (tathatā) or suchness of being, a term which in some aspects stresses the primitive non-differentiation of reality, and has, therefore, so far, analogies with the matter of the Sāṃkhya. It also may be equated with the womb of the Tathāgata (tathāgata-garbha), which is primarily intuition or true knowledge, and, derivatively, the source of every individual being.³ Further, though it cannot be identified with, it underlies the store of phenomena (dharma-dhātu, -rāci), the collection of unconscious mental elements, which are liable to be perceived as sound, or matter, or happiness.¹

c23.s1.10

³ Laṅk. p. 80.

c23.s1.11

¹ Nāgārjuna's Svamatoddeça; JRAS. 1906, p. 954, n. 3.

Cites (5)